Final Paper (Paper #3): What a Tragedy…

 

NOTE: Be sure to watch the video in the post below and respond with a comment before writing this paper! 

In Poole’s Tragedy, A Very Short Introduction, he writes, “But tragedy also asks us to observe the ways in which people reach judgments about who is to blame: the pressures they are under, the motives that impel them, the satisfactions they seek. It offers up for inspection and analysis, not so much the objects themselves, the scapegoats, as the process of scapegoating.”

Q: For this paper, which is really just a longer essay, I want you to answer the question: what makes Shakespeare’s Othello a tragedy? If tragedies are man-made, and the result of flaws or errors made by the protagonists of the play, what is the greatest flaw or error of this play? Who makes it? Is it their fault alone, or a series of errors or faults? Does Shakespeare seem to blame a specific person, or type of person? Or does he lay the blame at society itself? What causes things to go so terribly wrong for Othello and Desdemona in the play? If it was just the ‘evil’ nature of Iago, would it be a tragedy? Or just a play of bad luck? What makes a play tragic, rather than just unfortunate?

REQUIREMENTS

• No length requirement, but do more than one page!
• You MUST quote from the play and use examples from the play to illustrate your ideas. For example, if you think Othello is mostly to blame, show us how and where.
• Use at least ONE other work in class as a source. It can be anything from Sappho to Hafiz. But try to use another book to help us see or understand what makes this work tragic or meaningful.
• Due NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11^th by 5pm! You can turn it in earlier than this, but no late papers will be accepted.